Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 347: You Call Yourself a Top Scout?

In a sense, Li Wei's territory was like a sieve — infiltration was possible from any direction. The river to the south, the mountains to the north — with a bit of a detour, slipping inside wasn't difficult. You could even send a small army across the river at night and launch a fierce assault at dawn.

That was the centaur Count's plan.

But then what?

With fifty-four Level 4 Ability Users and two Cross-Border experts — could they actually take Li Wei's territory? Or the fortress?

Were they delivering themselves as easy kills, or putting on a performance art piece?

All that commotion, and the best they'd achieve was destroying a dozen electric trucks and killing some miners and transport workers.

What was the point?

Besides, every morning at dawn, the big crow flew from the western fortress toward the eastern territory, gathering intelligence from its subordinates along the way.

A Five-Star Hunting Pet. Not something to joke about.

So infiltration wasn't the hard part. The hard part was finding a target worth hitting, eliminating it without being exposed beforehand, and leaving enough time to withdraw.Honestly, any reasonably skilled scout could accomplish the basic version of this — like destroying those dozen electric trucks. That would be a clean strike.

But his standards were higher.

He wasn't here to create brief chaos and panic. A truly elite scout didn't strike often — but when he did, he cut through the enemy's main artery and left them crippled if not dead.

That was the difference.

Over these past days, his surveillance had revealed that Li Wei's territory was producing Three-Star iron ore, Two-Star coal, and Three-Star quality stone.

High-quality ore like that didn't come from digging a few dozen meters down. There were no open-pit iron mines here — if there were, they'd have been stripped long ago.

So he had good reason to believe the iron ore and coal were being extracted from depths of one to two hundred meters — possibly three to four hundred.

Yet he had found no signs of large-scale excavation near Base 349, no relevant construction equipment, no necessary infrastructure.

It felt as if the high-quality iron ore and coal simply refreshed there every day on their own.

This was extremely valuable intelligence. It had taken him eight days to piece together — because around Base 349, three Three-Star crows and two Three-Star owls circled day and night, monitoring the mountain terrain for dozens of kilometers in every direction.

Which was exactly why he was so envious. As a top-tier scout operating at the Five-Star level, he only had a few Four-Star Hunting Pets — summoning any of them would be an embarrassment. He hadn't dared.

And yet even under those conditions, he had still obtained the most critical intelligence.

That was what being a top scout meant.

So here was the truth of it.

Li Wei was at the fortress. The Witch was at the territory. Who was here?

Fifty skilled miners?

Ha. That was the story he'd fed to the Frost Duke's eavesdroppers.

His real assessment: five to ten Three-Star or Four-Star miners, all with Destiny Grids above 30.

Only miners of that caliber could work at those depths without any ill effects. And miners like that were extraordinarily valuable even among his own people.

He sometimes found himself genuinely impressed by Li Wei. When had he managed to cultivate native Freemen into miners this capable?

This was unquestionably one of the most valuable assets in his territory.

Absolutely.

Kill them, and the blow to Li Wei's territory would be crippling.

After it happened, Li Wei would understand — he had provoked a truly terrifying scout.

Li Wei would either spend the rest of his days in fear, or he'd come out and fight — on a scout's battlefield.

The Neanderthal scout burst out of the water. In the same instant, a throwing blade flashed in his hand — and a night-patrolling owl dropped from the sky.

Simple as that. And deliberately left as a clue for Li Wei: I came from the south bank, moving silently, cutting through your defenses...

Not satisfied?

Come find me then.

The Neanderthal scout moved north, killing three more mutant owls and two mutant bats along the way — all subordinates of the big crow. He was that brazen, because his objective was clear.

Without a clear objective, this kind of behavior would just be stupidity.

He passed through the small city base and headed straight for Base 349, killing every night bird he encountered along the way.

Interestingly, the place had no garrison. Which only confirmed his assessment — the higher a miner's Destiny Grid, the more they preferred enclosed spaces. Years of underground work had left their Perception in negative territory. They were like true moles, barely able to tolerate sunlight.

Li Wei — I'm coming for your lifeline.

With practiced efficiency, the Neanderthal scout leveraged his full scouting advantage. Among the dozen or so mine shafts of varying sizes hidden in the forested valley near Base 349, he quickly identified the main vein — it showed the most activity.

He slipped inside without a sound. He could already hear the rhythmic sound of picks striking rock.

It was nearly eleven at night, and someone was still mining. A true mole who had lost track of day and night entirely.

Sorry to interrupt. I'll be borrowing your head.

Deeper and deeper. A rail track for hauling ore appeared ahead — spiraling downward, the shaft narrow but impressively deep. A genuine Three-Star ore vein.

Following the track down, he descended roughly three hundred meters. Even the Neanderthal scout felt the strain — his Perception talent was severely suppressed in this environment. His usual +6 was reduced to something closer to +4.

Didn't matter. Because the mole miner down here had Perception in the negatives.

This was practically a blind kill.

Ahead, a faint light appeared — magical stones, clearly Neanderthal-issue. The same kind from their old camp.

What the—

The Neanderthal scout's eyes narrowed. He looked at the tall figure ahead, gripping a hardened steel cross-pick. Nearly two meters. Just one?

Apparently just one. But this was at minimum a Four-Star miner — look at the strength and technique in those strikes. And he seemed to have limitless stamina.

You're the one.

Moving without a sound, the Neanderthal scout drew a Five-Star Enchanted Dagger, leaped, and completed a throat-cut in an instant — so fast the afterimage blurred.

Textbook. Elegant. Flawless.

But the next second, he froze. This Four-Star miner's neck was made of iron?

Thomas turned around, puzzled. He'd felt something cold and fast slide across his neck — like a snake, actually pleasant. But in the moment of the attack, he had instinctively activated his City Builder Code Name. His emotional threshold being elevated didn't mean his combat reflexes had dulled.

What?

A stranger?

This ugly?

Are you a caveman?

Thomas blinked, then let out a roar and swung a fist — which hit nothing.

The Neanderthal assassin had already driven the dagger into his chest three times in rapid succession.

Sparks flew.

Because Thomas had passively activated his Rock Giant talent, transforming into a four-meter stone giant — and in one turn, he blocked the entire mine shaft entrance.

Right. Did anyone think he was actually stupid?

He had been alone at Base 349 for days at a time, never needing to go out, never needing a guard posted. Did that mean he was genuinely foolish?

No. It meant that in a mine shaft like this, he was on his home ground.

On the surface, or inside a building, Thomas would be in serious danger — his Rock Giant form couldn't be maintained indefinitely.

But down here? Well.

The Neanderthal scout was now genuinely alarmed.

The mine shaft had been freshly excavated — total floor space under thirty square meters. A giant of this size blocking the only exit left almost no room. What the—

Move. Get out of the way.

He began searching frantically for a gap to escape through. He hadn't anticipated that this so-called Four-Star miner was also a Rock Giant.

It didn't help. Thomas was on home ground — surrounded by rock and iron ore. He let out a low rumble and began swinging, one punch after another. Clumsy. On any other day, the Neanderthal scout could have dodged with his eyes closed.

Even now, with only +4 Perception — yes, he could still dodge with his eyes closed.

But then Thomas landed a few blows, and the mine shaft began to collapse in earnest. Tons of iron ore and rock came crashing down, burying the magical stones and shrinking the available space further. The Neanderthal scout wedged himself into a crack between two boulders — but Thomas didn't care.

He just kept swinging. Over and over, until the entire shaft had collapsed and he himself was buried in it.

Then, belatedly, it occurred to him:

"Wait — did I just crush that guy?"

"What kind of idiot was that? No — what kind of comedian?"

Thomas found himself actually amused. His emotional range had narrowed, but that didn't mean he couldn't laugh or be entertained. The threshold was just higher. The reaction time was longer.

At that moment, several lines of text blazed past.

[Territory-Wide Announcement!]

[Pioneer #11, Li Wei's advisor Thomas has successfully killed an invading Barbarian Cross-Border infiltrator!]

[He has received 300 War Points. Li Wei has received 200 War Points.]

[Li Wei has received a reward of 10,000 Barbarian gold coins. Thomas has received 5,000 Barbarian gold coins!]

—

A territory-wide announcement.

Everyone who received the message was stunned.

Including Li Wei, who had been dozing. Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue, who had been drinking quietly and were already pleasantly warm. Zhao Kewu, Socrates, Ron, Hathaway, and the rest.

What in the world was that?

But Li Wei received one additional line.

[Because your territory possesses a Level 2 Temple with a resident Temple Priest, this kill has earned you one Five-Star Universal Gold Card and one purple drop card. These two strategic resources will arrive in your hands shortly.]